“Did you say there was agreement about something in Washington?”

Let’s hope it’s not too good to be true, but it looks like Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, the White House, and USAID might agree on something—that US foreign aid needs to be more transparent.

The bill would require the US government to: (1) provide more information about how much, what, and where our foreign aid dollars go, as well as (2) strengthen processes to track and evaluate the projects and programs towards which those dollars go. Sound familiar? A similar bill was introduced during the last session of Congress.

Photo: http://bit.ly/16rIAMR

What’s most exciting this time around is that there seems to be bipartisan and cross-agency agreement that more transparency and better monitoring of US foreign aid is the right thing to do. This may be one thing that Congress, the White House, and USAID can agree on.

“From the civil society perspective, what is crucial more than anything else is transparency of budget information, including its timeliness, relevance and usefulness. The donors should be transparent about what it is that they have given the Tanzanian government and for what purpose, so that people in communities like ours can track the money.”

Washington, DC

Oxfam is a global organization working to end the injustice of poverty. We help people build better futures for themselves, hold the powerful accountable, and save lives in disasters. Our mission is to tackle the root causes of poverty and create lasting solutions.

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